Will Suzan DelBene's Potential Felony Hand The New WA-01 Seat to Teabagger John Koster?

While Blue America-endorsed progressive Darcy Burner is busy building a grassroots-funded campaign with over 9,000 donors, empty suit New Dem Suzan DelBene and her rich husband are trying to buy the seat, putting over $1.9 million of their own money into the race, dwarfing Burner and the three other Democrats in the race by a 4 to 1 margin. But if the Republican-controlled House Ethics committee has anything to say about it, a DelBene victory in the primary would almost certainly hand the seat over to extreme right-wing Republican John Koster. In 2011, DelBene refused to file the financial disclosure form that all candidates are required to file. Refusing to file the form is a federal felony punishable by up to $50,000 and five years in prison. While no one has filed a complaint against DelBene yet, Republicans will almost certainly go after DelBene in the general election for a seat that many consider to be one of the top Republican pick-up opportunities in the country. When voters are presented with a choice between a Tea Party Republican and a criminal, corporatist Democrat, no one will win.

The big question DelBene's failure to file her disclosure raises is what she might be hiding that would want her not to reveal her finances. Sound familiar? Everyone in America now knows that multimillionaire Mitt Romney is engulfed in a scandal because he didn't release his tax returns and refuses to disclose his assets and finances and DelBene is following that same path. That's not where the comparison to Romney ends, either. DelBene is a serial business failure in every way but one: she made lots of money for herself as she caused nothing but economic devastation around her. Also like Romney, DelBene is a favorite of the Inside-the-Beltway corrupt Establishment and she's gotten the backing of the New Dems and the DCCC has asked donors to keep out of the race, which effectively handed a big fund-raising advantage to DelBene, the only candidate in the race with enough money to self-finance. The comparisons between DelBene and Romney are enough that independent expenditures from Progress for Washington-- a SuperPAC funded by the mother of another Democrat in the race, Laura Ruderman-- repeatedly suggested that there was little difference between the two.


DelBene tries to position herself as a defender of the middle class and as a progressive, but that doesn't even pass a basic laugh test. Progressive groups have lined up to support Burner while the organizations that are supporting DelBene are doing so out of a fear of her massive bankroll and the party establishment's veiled warnings. DelBene lives the life of the quintessential 1-percenter and while she tries to claim that she was poor at one point and had to rely upon financial aid, she spent a lot of time skiing in Vail and attending prestigious private school Choate when her family was supposedly "struggling."

The important concern for November, however, is answering the question of whether or not DelBene is a felon who will be destroyed by the likely massive outside money that will flow into the district to flip the seat to the Republicans. It's hard to see how DelBene can explain away the failure to follow the law. Federal law requires that all candidates file a personal financial disclosure within 30 days of qualifying as a candidate. Qualifying is very specifically defined as having raised or spent $5,000 on campaign expenditures during a calendar year. DelBene passed the $5,000 level in two separate quarters in 2011 and has not, as of yet, filed a disclosure for that year.  

DelBene might argue that she didn't file a disclosure in 2011 because that she wouldn't be required to do so because those funds were leftovers from her unsuccessful 2010 run for Congress. But that would make her spending totals for the year not make a lot of sense:

Q1- $5,138.15
Q2- $857.95
Q3- $1,246.25
Q4- $8,243.38

While you can see the argument that Q1 was the continuation of the 2010 campaign and even Q2, in Q3 the spending starts ramping up again and really ramps up in Q4. Why would it ramp up again in Q4 to pay off 2010 debts? She didn't file to run for 2012 until January and never filed the required 2011 disclosure. Campaigns that are ending have to file a termination report with the Federal Elections Commission and/or a Withdrawal form with the House Clerk's office. DelBene did neither.

So the question is why didn't she submit the disclosure? What is she hiding? How much money will Republicans spend to make this a story if DelBene is the nominee? And just how bad is John Koster, the Republican that will win the seat if DelBene is the nominee?

Koster was endorsed by Ron Paul and agreed with Campaign For Liberty 100% on their 2010 questionnaire, including paranoia over a 'NAFTA Superhighway' and policies pulling the U.S. out of the U.N. and strengthening the gold standard. Koster is a proponent of privatizing Social Security. He wants expanded offshore oil drilling. He rejects the science on human-made global warming. He rejects marriage equality and doesn't even seem to know that there is a federal Defense of Marriage Act. While DelBene certainly shouldn't be a Member of Congress, John Koster really shouldn't be a Member of Congress and supporting DelBene in the primary almost certainly guarantees that Koster will be moving from Washington state to Washington, D.C.

Here's where you can help Darcy Burner win this seat. The polls have tightened up drastically as DelBene has closed in on over a million dollars in self-funded TV advertising. She's running her race like a Republican; she's already joined the corrupt anti-family New Dems and there's no reason to believe that a district like WA-01 should have to chose between two brands of conservatism in November.

Darcy Burner's Primary Is August 7-- That's Soon

Just over a week ago we spent a little time with Washington state Senator Steve Hobbs, an unabashedly conservative Democrat, who would like to move up to represent Washington's new first congressional district in DC. He's in an August 7th jungle primary race with 4 other Democrats and an unhinged Tea Party Republican, John Koster. The other Democrats are Darshan Rauniyar, who, like Hobbs, isn't showing up on any polling, and the three front-runners, conservative millionaire Suzan DelBene (New Dem and choice of the corrupt DC Establishment), conservative former state Rep. Laura Ruderman and progressive activist (and Blue America endorsee) Darcy Burner. With all those ConservaDems and the Tea Party guy splitting the votes of people who think that way, Darcy Burner has been the top Democrat in every single poll without exception.

The King 5/SurveyUSA poll showed Darcy with a lead of more than five to one over DelBene, the big-spending self-funder who that DC Establishment is backing. FIVE TO ONE! That's how clueless and out of touch with America the DC Establishment is! Darcy, according to their survey, is the only Democrat competitive in head to head match-ups with the far right-wing Republican, John Koster. What the SurveyUSA polling shows-- a confirmation of the internal polling Koster made public in March-- is that Darcy is leading her Democratic opponents with 46% among those who have already decided to vote Democratic. Ruderman and Hobbs tied for second with 17% and DelBene was a distant loser with 13%.

Even after DelBene started spending massive amounts of her husband's cash hoard, daily polling over the last month never showed Darcy dropping from a 2 to 1 lead over her and Darcy has been particularly strong among Democrats and left-leaning independents in the northern counties, new territory for her, DelBene and Ruderman. DelBene dropped several hundred thousand dollars into TV ads and then followed up with 4 mail pieces-- one of which was targeted at Whatcom County where she was desperate to win the Democratic Party's endorsement. Her flash mailer didn't do the trick; Darcy won the endorsement with 73.04% of the vote.


Last week a SuperPAC supporting Laura Ruderman struck back against DelBene with a powerful and destructive mail piece that went to every likely Democratic voter in the district, hitting her on her string of business failures, which is likely to prove very effective since she's basing her entire campaign on what a "successful" and "savvy" businessperson she's been. The Ruderman campaign made sure WA-1 Democrats knew that in "the latest Suzan DelBene mailer, she claims 'she went on as a senior level executive at Microsoft and as an entrepreneur creating jobs at technology startups.' Sounds good, doesn’t it? The problem is that it’s not really accurate. After DelBene left Microsoft, she worked at Drugstore.com. It started out as a success story as it’s stock went from $18 to $70. However, it ended up going down in flames, lost $115 million and the stock plummeted to $8/share. In the end, Walgreens bought what was left of the company. Then, DelBene went to “Nimble Technology” assuming the role of CEO. Again, the company never turned a profit and the remnants of the company were sold to another company. In other words, jobs briefly created were lost as both companies were sold in a firesale. I know what you are thinking. She may be the nominee for the Democrats. Don’t tell people this stuff... Trust me, the Republicans already have it."

Why would Ruderman turn so negative against DelBene? First of all, they're competing for the same conservative-leaning, low-info Democrats. Secondly, DelBene's strategy from day one-- cobbled together in DC-- has been to starve her opponents of resources while she writes her own checks, Romney-style. Her campaign-- backed by ConservaDems like spectacularly unpopular Gov. Christine Gregoire and sleazy New Dem Rick Larsen-- are insisting that Democratic donors and constituency groups "sit it out," either giving no endorsements or endorsing everyone. DelBene and her Establishment allies know that if they can keep the progressive candidate, Darcy, from having the resources to communicate, they can buy the seat-- and win the same way Romney beat Gingrich and Santorum.

When DelBene entered the race, she told KUOW radio that, "Democrats don't compromise enough with Republicans." Think about the depths of a millionaire's out of touch with reality mindset inherent in that attitude-- and what it would mean for a Member of Congress. That leads straight to the Blue Dog/New Dems caucus. In fact, the New Dems have already endorsed her campaign. DelBene publicly told the King County party activists that "Democrats aren't friendly enough to business" and she spoke of using deregulation as a primary means of stimulating the economy at a recent King5 debate.

Please help Blue America elect Darcy Burner to this seat-- by keeping conservative corporate shills John Koster (R) and Suzan DelBene (D) out. Here's where you can contribute to her grassroots campaign. August 7th. That's less than a month away! And voting starts July 20. See that magazine cover up top? Your contribution is likely to help her send copies of that to voters in WA-1. Here's another page from it (you'll have to click on the image to read it):




UPDATE: MoveOn Members Vote To Endorse Darcy!

From her campaign's press release:

Darcy has built a powerful, grassroots campaign spanning the entire new 1st District-- from King County all the way up to Whatcom County. And now, in a crowded field of seven candidates, Darcy emerged as the clear favorite, earning 51% of all the votes cast by MoveOn's 19,000 members in the district-- more than twice as many as her nearest competitor.

When Darcy heard about our endorsement, she said:

"I am honored to receive the endorsement of MoveOn.org and the support of their more than 19,000 members living in the 1st District. This is a year in which millions of people working together will overcome the influence of big money and big business. I look forward to working with MoveOn's members to show how it's done so that we can end the war in Afghanistan, fix our broken Congress, and get our economy back on track for people who work for a living."

Guest Post From Washington State Senator Steve Hobbs

Not infrequently Democratic candidates get in touch with Blue America and tell one of us exactly what they think we want to hear-- i.e., how progressive they are. I've had candidates flat out lie to me, Chris Carney being the worst example of all. He lied about specific issues and, we later found out, was laughing on the other end of the phone while he was doing so. After we helped elect him, he joined the Blue Dog caucus and voted like a conservative Republican until being defeated in the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010. Washington Senator Steve Hobbs isn't trying to mislead anyone. He described himself to me as "extremely" conservative. And he did so over and over while we talked on the phone. He knew Blue America is strongly backing Darcy Burner, one of his opponents, for the WA-1 congressional seat. But Steve served in uniform for over 20 years and was elected to the state Senate in 2006 and reelected in 2010; no need for him to mislead anyone.

There was something about Steve's unabashed conservatism that was appealing though-- no, not the conservatism itself-- Steve's attitude about it. For one thing, his fiscal conservatism doesn't bleed over into the social issues. He's a pro-Choice, pro-LGBT Democrat, with a voting record to back up those claims. It's in contrast to the Blue Dogs in DC who swear they're just fiscally conservative and then vote straight-up reactionary when it comes to matters of Choice, corporate corruption and equality. Many of the DC Blue Dogs vote more frequently with Boehner and Cantor than with Nancy Pelosi, at least on the crucial roll calls where they are most needed. This session, according to Progressive Punch, the worst of the Blue Dogs, Dan Boren (OK) scored a dismal 16.03 and the second worst, Mike Ross (AR), scored 19.21. So each voted against progressive roll calls over 80% of the time. That's worse than some Republicans! Ross has a lifetime score of ZERO on issues impacting the lives of LGBT Americans and Boren has a 20%. That's not the kind of conservative Steve Hobbs is. When I heard his thinking on how a proud conservative wound up championing LGBT issues, I asked him to write a guest post for DWT:

Why I Voted for Marriage Equality in Washington State

By State Senator Steve Hobbs

Andrew Wilfahrt had a love of music, numbers and his country.

He joined the army as a 29 year-old and was deployed to Afghanistan in July of 2010. He was a well-liked, valiant, intelligent soldier who recorded a perfect score on his military aptitude test.

On February 27 of last year, Corporal Wilfahrt gave the ultimate sacrifice, what President Lincoln called the last full measure of devotion, when he was killed while on patrol in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb.

Cpl. Wilfahrt’s story is common among the hundreds of thousands of men and women who have fought and died in service of our country since its founding-- except that Andrew didn’t have all of the same rights and freedoms that he fought and died for.

Cpl. Wilfahrt didn’t have those rights because he was gay.

It is because of Andrew’s story and the stories of so many gay and lesbian soldiers serving and dying for a country that does not recognize their right to marry who they love that I proudly voted in favor of Marriage Equality in the Washington State Senate this year.

The bill I voted for will help start to right a wrong in our state and allow same-sex couples to marry.

I have served in the Army for more than 20 years and am currently a member of the Washington National Guard. During my service, which included deployment to combat zones in Kosovo and Iraq, I proudly served alongside many gay and lesbian soldiers.

Estimates are that approximately 66,000 gay and lesbian men and women are active duty members of our armed forces today. It is because of soldiers like Cpl. Wilfahrt and others I served with and continue to serve with today that I was a yes vote on this bill.

How could I look my gay and lesbian comrades in the eye if I voted no? How could I stand next to them, train with them, fight with them and potentially die with them if I voted to deny them the same rights that I have?

I represent a swing district in Snohomish County, Washington, where the majority of my constituents do not support marriage equality. That’s fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and, believe me-- they shared them with me before I took my vote*. I’m sure many of them will share their opinions by voting for someone else in my campaign for U.S. Congress.

This is what I believe. There is a line in the soldier’s creed that reads, “Never leave a fallen comrade behind.” It’s a line that we believe and live by. When you join the military you enter a family and take a sacred oath to protect the members of your family.

My vote for Marriage Equality was an extension of that creed.

*As their Senator I do respect their opinions and beliefs even though I disagree with them on this issue.

Blue America Welcomes Back One Of Our Most Cherished Friends, DARCY!

Today at 11am (PT), Digby will be leading a live-blogging session at Crooks and Liars with Darcy Burner, Blue America's favorite Washingtonian-- the gorgeous state up north, not the cesspool back East. So below is mostly the Blue America letter Digby wrote that we sent out to all our members yesterday. Except for the parts where you hear a whip cracking. Those are some insertions for DWT readers only. [We don't want to scare normal people.]

Every once in a while a righteous cause rises to the surface of our political consciousness at  the moment the right politician is ready to lead it. It doesn't happen very often, but it's happening right now. That cause is the fight against the national right wing assault on women, and the leader is Darcy Burner, running for congress in Washington's newly drawn first congressional district, which stretches from the suburbs east of Seattle all the way up through Bellingham and beyond to the Canadian border.

A week ago, at the Netroots nation gathering in Providence Rhode Island, Darcy gave a rousing Keynote speech to several thousand attendees. She presented them with a plan for progressive power. And she asked that women, in particular, empower themselves and inspire those around them to do the same.  She did this by pointing out that this reckless war on women was not election year rhetoric, that the takeover of state houses all over the country and the US Congress in 2010 has resulted in attempts to roll back paycheck equality, access to contraception and most especially abortion rights.

She reminded the crowd that 1/3 of all adult women will have an abortion in their lifetimes. And then she did something very bold: she asked all the women who'd had abortions to stand. And they did. One by one at first, and finally all at once, women throughout that huge crowd, in front of all their peers and friends, stood up. That's not an easy thing to do in this culture, even among friends. The right has made it a dishonorable, solitary act, borne in silence, subject to fear and social stigma. 

So Darcy took the next step: she asked all of those who supported  those women to stand up. Everyone in the  room came to their feet. There was no sustained applause and no celebration, just a simple public acknowledgment of solidarity and sincere support for the women in all of our  lives who have made this choice and are no longer willing to be shamed for making it.

This is the essence of leadership-- a candidate for office taking a stand on one of the most contentious issues of our time, reminding the people of what they have in common, empowering those who need to be empowered and asking for solidarity from their friends and neighbors.

This is Darcy.

Naturally, she is being vilified for it. That's what happens to people who challenge the status-quo. It's certainly to be expected from the retrograde right wing. Unfortunately, her so-called "progressive" primary opponent is staging a whisper campaign in the district as well, alleging that she led "cheers" for abortion and portraying her as an extremist for illustrating that abortion is not a disgraceful choice made by a small number of irresponsible women but  rather  a common, everyday part of the lives of our mothers, daughters, friends and wives. The local press is eating it up. A Seattle political operative, Sandeep Kaushik, who tried unsuccessfully to turn Darcy against her netroots supports in 2008-- and who tried to sabotage her campaign-- is now working for Suzan DelBene and is the source of the smear campaign and the ugly insinuations that Darcy was asking people to cheer abortions. DelBene hasn't fired him, which says an awful lot about her character.

Darcy needs our help.

She is a leader on many issues, from the war in Afghanistan to economic fairness. But on this, she has done something that no other Democrat has done-- she has attempted to redefine the battle lines on women's reproductive rights.  And until the Democratic Party follows her lead, women's rights will continue to be whittled away in bits and pieces all over the country until one day we will find that more than 50 million of our people will have been denied the right to decide their own futures, take care of their families and otherwise be full and equal citizens.

Instead we get Democratic Party operatives, like sleazy New Dem vice-chair Rick Larsen calling up Darcy's donors and telling them to stop giving her money. New Dems and Blue Dogs would rather see Republicans win than progressives. They're a real cancer inside the Democratic caucus. Please join us at 11 at Crooks and Liars for a live chat with Darcy about this issue. And please donate what you can to her campaign. If we let them destroy her, it will send a message to all other progressive politicians that they must not challenge the prevailing, cowardly orthodoxy on abortion rights. We cannot let that happen.

Rick Larsen-- Sleazy New Dem-- Seeks To Torpedo Darcy Burner's Congressional Bid

Rick Larsen-- the Democratic Old Guard in DC has lost touch with the values of the Democratic Party

Tuesday Alex Isenstadt did a Beltway kind of story about how Blue Dogs face extinction. It was more relevant when we wrote it in 2009 but... well, Politico. Someone should tell Alex that this year the story isn't that the Blue Dogs are finally going extinct, but that they've migrated over to the New Dems, a similarly conservative group, only less racist, less sexist and less homophobic. But just as corrupted by corporate cash. Blue Dogs who are also New Dems include Jason Altmire (PA), John Barrow (GA), Jim Cooper (TN), Mike McIntyre (NC), Loretta Sanchez (CA), Adam Schiff (CA), Kurt Schrader (OR), and David Scott (GA). After November, when the Blue Dogs officially go belly up, all the remaining members will join the New Dems, making it an even more disgusting group than it already is. Normally when we talk about how disgusting the New Dems are we roll out Queens corruptionist Joseph Crowley, the chairman who is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. But today, let's share the spotlight with the vice-chair, Rick Larsen (WA). According to ProgressivePunch, in the current legislative session (2011-12) Larsen voted with the Democrats more than the Republicans-- but not by much. He took the progressive side almost two-thirds of the time and the conservatives' side about one-third of the time, making him one of the 30-some-odd worst Democrats in Congress and the worst Democrat from the state of Washington. So it should have come as no surprise this week that he endorsed a dismal candidate of the one percent, Suzan DelBene in the open first congressional district of Washington state.

The state Democratic Establishment wants the self-funding multimillionaire and the party establishment is coalescing behind her-- even though voters show virtually zero enthusiasm for this remote, one-percent female Mitt Romney who is most often compared to Meg Whitman. Keep in mind that the two politicians leading this move-- outgoing Governor Christine Gregoire and Larsen-- are among the least popular and least admired politicians in the state of Washington. Labor unions whine about how the Democrats don't take on the one percent on behalf of their members and then the union chiefs back a one-percenter like DelBene (take a look at this post about labor's political role).

"It's no surprise that Governor Gregoire would endorse Suzan DelBene given her role in the Gregoire Administration," said Burner spokesperson Jeremy Koulish. "It is rather surprising, though, that Gregoire's endorsement announcement came so close to Tax Day, but made no mention of DelBene's role as Gregoire's tax collector."

DelBene ran against Reichert in 2010, after Burner said she wouldn't run. Democrats believe DelBene would finance much of her own campaign, freeing the party of the prospect of ponying up money that could be better spent elsewhere.

"DelBene can write a check and win it," said one Democratic consultant who is unaffiliated in the race. "She is a really nice person, just not terribly inspiring."

Larsen, widely considered a cat's paw for corporate interests inside the Democratic caucus, who long ago gave up any pretense of representing working families, sounded like he was describing a Republican when he talked about why he's backing DelBene. “I have been watching the race closely and evaluating the Democratic candidates. I am looking for the person who can best run the kind of modern campaign that mixes the necessary organization, outreach to the big and small towns, and resources to deliver the positive message of restoring the middle class and protecting Medicare. Suzan DelBene has put together the kind of organization to win the primary and this fall. I am not surprised by this as it reflects her success in business putting together successful organizations.” Yes, DelBene is good at hiring expensive consultants-- her only demonstable skill. Larsen, like many in the corrupted Democratic Old Guard, seem ready to sacrifice Democratic values and principles-- and, in this case, a chance to win-- to cozy up to big money.

Blue America has endorsed Darcy Burner, a proven independent thinker with a 100% progressive agenda. Polls show her winning the primary but there is a danger that she could get swamped by the millions of dollars DelBene claims she's willing to invest in her own campaign. Please consider helping Darcy out here at the Blue America ActBlue page. Keep in mind, DelBene would be another member of the corrupt corporate-oriented New Dems/Blue Dogs and Darcy would immediately rise to a leadership position in the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Blue America Welcomes Back An Old Friend: Darcy Burner

NEVER GIVE UP!



At 11am PT today, Darcy will be over at Digby's Hullabaloo to talk with Digby about fixing Congress and answer questions from readers about her run for Congress. Back in 2006, when Blue America was just a young PAC, she, along with Donna Edwards and Sherrod Brown, seemed like our best hopes for progressive congressional candidates emerging from out of our own ranks, conversant with the way the new technology had merged with progressive politics. Many, in fact, saw Darcy as the first Netroots candidate. She was the brilliant former Microsoft executive who famously declared that she knew she had to step into the arena when she realized that she needed to leave a better world for her young son, Henry.

We endorsed her enthusiastically in both of her heartbreakingly close losses, in 2006 and 2008, and followed with interest her subsequent work in Washington, DC, with the Progressive Caucus Foundation. While there, she worked closely with Raúl Grijalva and Keith Ellison and learned the inside workings of Congress, built relationships and alliances with other progressives, and deepened her policy knowledge to truly impressive heights. Yet throughout it all, Darcy has closely maintained her connections to the Netroots and her commitment to the progressive movement we've been trying to build from the beginning. She was one of those rare people with the integrity and backbone to be in Washington without being of Washington.

Still, we couldn't be more thrilled that she is back home in the Pacific Northwest and ready to give it another go. We are proud to endorse her for the congressional seat in the new WA-01 district. We need people like Darcy in Congress more than ever, because, as she says:

We can’t fix what’s broken with our country if we don’t fix Congress. Our Congress is full of crooks who trade on insider knowledge, of people who have sold their souls to the very people who have broken our country. Even the good ones, the members who want the right things, too often give up too easily on important fights, or can’t figure out how to fix the deep structural problems that undermine us.

We need people there who are tenacious and who won’t give up when things get hard.

Indeed we do. And Darcy is nothing if not tenacious.

It's not going to be a cakewalk. She will be facing a primary from a self-funding caricature of the one percent who was lured into the race by consultants who have been ripping her off and by DCCC czar Steve Israel, who wants middle-of-the-road order-takers who won't give him a hard time and who have lots of their own cash. And the probable GOP opponent will be very well financed. (Aren't they all?) She's going to need our help. And here's the place to give her some.

Don't forget to surf over to Digby's Hullabaloo at 11 to meet her in person. We need people like Darcy to remind DC insiders-- of both parties-- about stuff like this, stuff they don't want to be reminded about:

Nevada Democrats Throwing Away A Shot At A Pickup On A Worthless Blue Dog-- Will Washington State Dems Do The Same Thing?

Darcy-- Henry is a good reason you should run for Congress!

By Tuesday evening, everyone will know that Democrats have blown an opportunity to win a special election for Nevada's massive 2nd District, basically the whole state outside the Las Vegas area. If you read the PPP data released early this morning, you already know it. Garden variety GOP corporate shill Mark Amodei leads Blue Dog Kate Marshall 50-37%, with Marshall's Democratic support dropping from 86% to 74% in the last three weeks.

The seat is empty because the Republican governor appointed the last elected congressman, Dean Heller, to the Senate seat vacated when longtime Republican Party leader John Ensign got caught up as the main protagonist in an appalling sex and bribery scandal. In 2008 the 2nd CD was the only Nevada district McCain won-- although just barely; it was a 49%-49% tie, with McCain edging Obama by a handful of votes. At the time, Heller won reelection with a very weak 52% showing.

Heller did a lot better last year: 63% of the vote, primarily because disappointed Democrats and left-leaning independents just did not turn out to vote. In 2006, 103,572 Democrats voted and 116,160 Republicans voted. In 2008 it was 136,548 Democrats and 170,771 Republicans. Last year, after Obama proved beyond any doubt he was only kidding about Hope and Change, it was only 87,421 Democrats and 169,458 Republicans. They were motivated; we were not-- not in Nevada's 2nd District, not anywhere. And least motivated, nationally, were Democratic voters asked to pick between conservative Blue Dogs and Republicans. That's why more than half the Blue Dogs in Congress went extinct, in every region of the country.

So what did the Nevada Democratic Party brain trust do this year? Why, pick a Blue Dog, of course!

The Blue Dogs have only endorsed one candidate so far this cycle: Blue Dog Kate Marshall. The Democratic and Republican hierarchies conspired against their own rank-and-files and handpicked their own conservative candidates. So Democrats are stuck with a Blue Dog, and they're not planning on bothering to come to the polls Tuesday to vote. It's that simple. And a rational decision. Obama and other corporate Democratic sell-outs like the Blue Dogs (and Marshall) favor policies like this. Republicans do too. Rank-and-file Democrats DO NOT. There was a time when voters didn't know what a Blue Dog is and conservative creeps like Marshall could sneak into office in a crisp blue tee-shirt. No more.

With early voting already well underway and showing encouraging signs for Republican Mark Amodei and GOP-aligned groups spending heavily against Democrat Kate Marshall, the Blue Dog Coalition political action committee's Wednesday endorsement of the Democrat just six days before Nevada's 2nd District special election looks like too little, too late.

"The reality is this is the first candidate we've endorsed this cycle," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., who co-chairs the Blue Dog coalition of moderate Democrats. "And so, we're gearing up our own internal process because this is a special election. It would be the Blue Dogs' fault for not doing this quicker, not Kate's. And it doesn't reflect on her candidacy."

"We moved, quite frankly as quickly as we could, and I have to think the majority of votes that are going to be cast Sept. 13 have yet to be cast," said Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, who also co-chairs the group.

...With just days left before the election, it's unlikely the endorsement from the Blue Dogs, whose ranks were razed during the 2010 midterm election, is going to do all that much to move the needle. Marshall needs very strong turnout on Election Day to counteract the GOP advantage in early voting and pull off the upset.

You may know that Blue America has a BAD DOG! page dedicated to replacing Blue Dogs with actual Democrats. The party bosses in Nevada made it impossible for us, or Nevada rank-and-file Democrats-- to play a role in their state, and they're losing out to the other conservative candidate, a Republican. Imagine if, instead of the uninspiring Marshall, Democrats could have run someone standing up for working families, not corporate interests, someone offering voters a New Deal approach that differs significantly from what Obama has been selling! The right Democrat can muster 150,000 votes in NV-2. Marshall looks like she won't get close to half that on Tuesday. Thanks again, Blue Dogs.

Now up in Washington state, the rank-and-file still do pick the candidates. And it looks like the newly reconfigured First CD, open because incumbent Jay Inslee is running for governor, will be a strongly Democratic-leaning district. Unfortunately, the Blue Dogs are up to their sleazy tricks, sending in a conservative corporate shill disguised as a real Democrat. Perennial candidate for one office or another and ex-state Rep. Laura Ruderman is running hard for the Democratic nomination. She's a darling of the Big Money corporate wing of the Democratic Party, a Wall Street-oriented, anti-family/anti-union/anti-environment poster child of Lieberman's DLC.

Looking at the likely new map of the district, however, we've noticed that it encompasses most of the areas of the old 8th CD, where progressive champion Darcy Burner beat Dave Reichert in 2006 and 2008. In fact, these parts of King County that will now make up a good chunk of the 1st were so heavily in favor of Darcy that had Pierce County not been so strongly Republican, Darcy would already be in Congress and Reichert would be working as a lobbyist on K Street. So Blue America is hoping to persuade Darcy to run for this seat, which happens to include her home. It would certainly make for a great primary battle, a true blue progressive vs. a conservative DINO with a putrid anti-environmental record in one of the most pro-environmental districts in the whole country!

The Democratic Party can't afford more Kate Marshalls. If the party is going to mean anything, we need progressives in Congress, progressives like Darcy Burner and Cecil Bothwell, the North Carolina populist challenging Blue Dog Heath Shuler, so far the only candidate on our Bad Dogs page. Let's hope Darcy's the next one we add to it.